


A New Identity

by fairytalehearts



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Justice League, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:03:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3719590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalehearts/pseuds/fairytalehearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something tells Felicity that saying yes will change her life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oliver

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted a fic where Felicity and Oliver got married and then it turned into how Arrow/The Flash could phase in the justice league. So I just kept writing.

"This is Plan A?” Oliver did not like having Ray in the Arrow Cave. He didn’t like having his sister or Laurel, or even Lyla most nights, but the Metahuman Crisis was about to plague his city and he needed all the help he can get. Even Ray and his supersuit. There was no way in hell he was gonna call it “adam”.

“Plan A should be Felicity locked in a secure room away from danger.” Ray’s foot had been in his mouth for the past twenty minutes, and Laurel had tried to punch him twice- Diggle and Roy catching her before she got within two feet.

“Felicity is not some little princess you need to lock in a tower.” Laurel angry was something he didn’t even want to approach, especially now that she knew how to properly throw her weight into a punch. “She is part of the team. She trains with us, she bleeds with us. We would all be dead if not for Felicity. And you’re not even on the team, you sexist asshole.”

“Down, Laurel.” Felicity whispered, obviously distraught.

Oliver agreed with Ray, but he wasn’t going to let the group know that.

“I will go to the panic room. Thea will be in the field because she is a Queen and frankly kicks ass. When this disaster is over someone will come get me out of that hellhole and we will help Barry and his grandson save Central City and then Metropolis if we need to. That call from that Clark guy sounded real serious and when Bruce Wayne calls your personal cell phone number that you do not give out to anyone, you answer the call.”

Felicity grabs her things, and Ray goes to touch her arm, and she shrugs away, “I can’t even look at you right now.”

His legs are moving before he can stop them, his mouth saying nothing to fight the weight on his heart.

“He just wants me to be safe.” Felicity has a way of talking during their silent moments, all of their moments really, and she’s fidgeting and nervous. She is not the type to be vindictive, or cruel but her feelings were hurt and he can’t fix it. Talking herself into her predicament obviously wasn’t working.

“I agree with him.” He offers instead.

“Of course you agree with him. That’s not the problem, Oliver.” Felicity’s tears hurt him, more than any metahumans or aliens ever could. He removes her glasses and wipes them away with his thumbs. Oliver can tell she’s embarrassed by Ray’s actions- in front of Bruce Wayne and her friends, just to name a few.  Felicity would be needed to run point if things went bad in Starling. She would be alone with most of her friends dead, and if her rations wore out she was instructed to leave the city and head for Barry. He would protect her until he couldn’t and if worse came to worse, he had instructions to bring her to Vegas to be with her mother. Not that he would ever tell her that.

Felicity being quiet was never a good sign, so he dropped his hands from the side of her face and took a step back. He cleans her glasses on his t-shirt and returns them to her, her hand lingering on his thumb. His hands were gripping an arrow that was not there, and maybe they all had tells.

“Don’t die.” A command, not plea. Oliver could not deny her anything but that. Death did not stop him the first time, and he would always come back for her.

“I can’t promise you that, Felicity. But I’ve already died once, so there’s-” This was not the time for jokes but what else can he do?

“Come back to me, then?” Her plea bites his heart in ways he didn’t like to admit.

“I promise.”

Oliver hoped that was one promise he could keep.

**

Nyssa shows up half way into their “crisis” which was basically the team herding Metahumans this way or that, and aside from the looting he’d just stopped nothing too crazy had happened. The two of them walked through his part of town in silence. Then two hours passed and he needed to talk to someone.

“You’ve done a good job with Laurel.”

“I’ve broken her wrist twice and bruised all of her ribs. Yet every morning she puts on her suits and goes to work. I know you do not approve, but she is at least dedicated to the cause. She was the one who insisted I aid you on this- endeavor.”

He knew that already, but it was nice to hear that Nyssa really didn’t give a shit about him. The two of them encountered a giant hole blasted into a jewelry store. The culprit flew down towards them and offered his hand.

 “The Firestorm Initiative will be taking this particular case.” Watching a man on fire talk was a little disconcerting, but Firestorm was to be trusted and if he could keep one less distraught metahuman off the streets then that was what needed to happen.

Ronnie or Martin or whatever he wanted to be called flew away, leaving the two of them to clean up the mess. Boarding up the window, Oliver gently extracted a ring out of the rubble. The diamond was huge, probably an old display ring that had fallen into the window sill behind the now burnt display table. Pocketing the ring, he made a mental note to return with his checkbook and he signaled for Nyssa so they could finish their sweep.

“Diggle, report.”

“Well aside from the friendly flying away and Superman taking the rest is looks like Starling has survived. Go get our girl.”

Nyssa, smoke in hand was about to do her disappearing trick, but Oliver stopped her, “The smoke trick is cliché, Nyssa. How about: until next time. Goodbye.”

She gave him the middle finger before doing the smoke trick anyway, her footsteps echoing off the nearby rooftop before disappearing all together.

Oliver was closer to his apartment than the secure vault on the other side of town, so he stopped to shower off the soot and sweat from the day before going to get Felicity. He had told her once that he couldn’t be the Arrow and Oliver Queen but with the new friend he’d made in Metropolis and metahumans and alien wars, he couldn’t be either without her.

Ring in pocket, he entered the security code in the secret panel, Felicity, running into his arms the second the door opened. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine a world where he didn’t have her to greet him when he got home, one where she was gone and in a very Felicity way he had said those things aloud, “Marry me.”

He gets down on one knee and the floors dirty and he’s definitely crying, “I don’t want to live in a world where we’re not together and I know this is all my fault and I’ve pushed you away and I don’t want to push anymore.”

He thinks that is the longest sentence he’s ever spoken aloud. Which also gives him a chance to think about his horrible timing, or her relationship with Ray, or how desperate he sounds.

She makes him stand up and he has an out of body experience because her rejection was too much to take. He accepts it though, and maybe he can’t be around her for a few days to lick his wounds and maybe there was no hope for them because he took the one pure thing in his life and ruined it-

“I will marry you, Mr. Queen.”

She jumps on him, the surprise knocking the two of them over, but she’s giggling and kissing his forehead and he can’t really complain. They ride his motorcycle to City Hall and they get married, the judge happy to pronounce them Mr. and Mrs. Queen.

“Oh. she doesn’t have to take my last name, your honor.”

“I already filled out the paperwork.”  Felicity shrugged, putting the ring on his left finger, “Besides, I’ve always wanted to be a Queen.”

Now was the time for jokes apparently. The judge tells him to kiss his wife already, and he complies, dipping her low and she’s wearing sweatpants that say STAR Labs on them and he hasn’t slept in two days. It’s not perfect but they are and that’s all that matters.

There are things they should be doing, things that are important for the city. Maybe tonight he’ll be Oliver Queen instead of the Arrow. And maybe tomorrow morning too. Oliver picks her up around the legs, hoisting her onto his back.

“I wanna get super drunk and then have sex in a hotel fountain.”

“Can we eat first? I am starving.”

Oliver’s not really sure which one of them said what, his pulse echoing in his ears, but he runs the two of them across the street to W hotel, the concierge staring at them in shock. “We need a room. And cheeseburgers. And fries. And chocolate milkshakes and honey.”

Felicity whips out her black card and hands it to the attendant, “Your honeymoon suite. Send up some Vodka too. Russian.”

She doesn’t ask what the honey is for, though Oliver can tell she’s curious. He doesn’t want to break the air of mystery just yet, so when he gets up to their room, he takes his time removing his coat. She’s nervous and rambling and if Oliver didn’t spend at least fifteen minutes a day fantasizing about this very moment-

“Okay. What is the honey for? Because we just got married and I’ve seen you naked but honestly-”

The food comes at the perfect time, and he keeps silent, enjoying her distress, “And you said I was a horrible liar.” He uncovers her food and hands it to her, sitting on the edge of the empty hot tub. She joins him and looks at the bottle of honey on his tray.

“This is an omission- something you excel at. Lying about coffee shops and laptops is a completely different thing.”

He puts the honey on his french fries and Felicity laughs so much she cries.

“What did you think I was gonna do with it?” Oliver questions.

She tells him later that night and he’s sure the thought of that particular scenario happening will keep him warm for the rest of winter.

**

Caitlin dies.

Oliver can’t breathe, he knew powers were nothing to mess with but she and Felicity were safe. Central City did not get it half as bad as Starling but Barry was sure that Harrison Wells was making it worse. Felicity and Caitlin were in the pipeline and then a lightning strike made its way into her cell-

Felicity watched everything. The lightning strike, the blue face. The screaming. Cisco had to figure out how to electrocute her to keep her from killing Felicity after she ate the nuclear core to something. He wasn’t listening to the story. He was too preoccupied with his wife, sobbing on the floor. He was preoccupied with seventeen stitches and the blood on the floor and trying to wrap his mind around Caitlin, his friend, sucking the heat out of everything before turning into nothing.

Felicity was a wreck, Cisco had some electricity power he could barely control and Barry couldn’t run. It was choking him the grief in the air, and it was making him antsy and nervous- two things he couldn’t afford to be.

“We need to go home.” Oliver finally snaps. Ray was missing, Diggle kept calling and they didn’t call it a crisis for nothing, “You both need to get out of this place. After Dr. Wells- you need to get away. I have a new friend that can help you but staying here is toxic.”

Cisco takes the first plane to Gotham. He has to knock Barry unconscious to get him in the car.

“My city needs me.”

“Well you need an island and time to heal.” Felicity said gently, “You can stay with Oliver and I for as long as you need.”

The problem with inviting Barry to stay with them, besides the fact that was the last thing Oliver would ever want ever- was that there was not enough room for them in her apartment. Most of the things they let him keep from his family home were in storage, but Oliver wanted to spend time with his wife.

“We need a bigger place.” Oliver mumbled, kissing her cheek and tucking her coffee thermos into her bag. He had mastered making coffee in the past few days, a fact that did not go unnoticed by his wife.

“One of us owns the company now. We can afford it. Just start looking for places and I can re-task a satellite on my lunch break.”

Felicity was wearing suits to work now. And stockings that drove him nuts because he knew the thinnest piece of elastic was holding them up- glancing over to wehere Barry was sitting in front of the world’s largest pile of pancakes, Oliver felt for him. Unfortunately he did not sign up to babysit Barry for the rest of his life.

“So- Househunting? Typing is one of things I can do faster than the average person without the speed force.” Barry looked better but he had other things going on even before Caitlin died. His grandson from the future. Iris. Dr. Wells. A monkey in the sewers. Maybe having him stay with them was a mistake.

“First we’re gonna run ten miles. Get dressed.”

Oliver doesn’t stay in the room long enough to hear his bullshit excuse about not changing before running. He stretches and fills his water pack before motioning for Barry to the do the same. They start at a jog, and by mile five Barry is huddled into a ball at the bottom of a hill, Oliver wishing he could be do anything else in the world right now.

Jogging back down the hill, he helped his friend back up and handed him a granola bar. His metabolism was still high, he could still heal- he just couldn’t run. Which was utterly ridiculous, even if you couldn’t understand the physics behind it.

“You know I’m not good with motivational speeches but we obviously need to have a conversation about what happened because I have not slept with my wife once in the past month and she is miserable and you are miserable which makes me miserable. So how about you start talking about what’s really bothering you and then you can get back to STAR Labs and off our couch.”

“I promised myself that I wasn’t going to mess with the timestream again. I promised that there was nothing in this world that would be bad enough. Caitlin is dead because of me. But when I start to change the future every time- something happens to me. Why am I even telling you this? You don’t even remember asking me, Oliver.”

If he, or another version of him, had asked him to change the past then it must have been for a good reason, “Is this because of Bart?” Oliver asks, looking around the residential neighborhood they’d stopped in. He doubted anyone would be watching them now, but you could never be too careful.

Bart, his grandson. Bart, who was currently reckless, impulsive and maybe a little crazy. Bart was told to watch Star City while he was gone, and he had so far done nothing but make sure Iris was okay.

“Iris has been with Eddie for years. Once we might have had something but that’s passed. And then my grandson shows up and says a crisis is coming and then Caitlin’s dead, Cisco can’t touch any of his equipment without frying it and I can’t freaking run anymore! What good is a slow Flash? Professor Zoom won. I failed.”

Barry picks up a stray twig on the ground and throws it, the small piece of wood, splintering the mailbox in front of them.

Oliver plucks the twig out of the mailbox and a real estate agent smiles brightly at him, “Are you here for the Open House? Sorry there was a misprint on the flyer, it’s actually next door.”

Barry smirks and dusts himself off before reaching to shake the woman’s hand, “My friend here just so happens to need a new place. Newlywed to my almost sorta ex. Let’s talk!”

They tour the townhouse, Barry playing the part of the doting wife, asking about window treatments and keeping the furniture the stager picked. It was very- bright. Sunlight- easy for repelling. Basement needs work. So do the stairs and if he was going to hide weapons in the house, he could just put smart doors over the built-ins and then maybe some tasteful art pieces.

“I’ll take it. I’ll double your commission if you give me the keys right now.” Oliver, a long time ago would have gone into real estate. He would have married Laurel and maybe run his father’s company into the ground if Thea didn’t get it. He would have three kids and a mistress and several expensive sports cars and a yacht. He would still party with Tommy and Laurel would still be the same and Sara would be alive and happy and maybe have finished college.

He would never met Diggle or Felicity and he would be so miserable.

Oliver doesn’t tell the real estate agent any of this, but she doesn’t hesitate before tossing him the keys. Apparently the Queen name still meant something. Barry keeps up with him on the jog back to Felicity’s apartment, and Iris is there waiting for them, Bart zipping around the apartment packing up their things. He didn’t tell Bart that he was even thinking about moving but maybe it was one of those future things one quietly accepted.

“Bart told me the truth. I had to see you.”

Barry can’t find the words he needs to say. The two of them are silent, and Oliver knew that he needed to get the ball rolling. Otherwise there’d be five people staying in the apartment.

“You weren’t there for him. His friend died and you were- nowhere. I had to physically pull him out of that basement- he’s broken. And you being here is not helping.” Oliver is stressed out and tired and he needed to move.

“I have loved you since I was ten, Iris. And you love Eddie and that’s not changing, and Eddie is a good guy. He’s a friend and treats you right and I had accepted that but then Bart shows up and tells me we have twins and are so in love but I don’t have time to think about things like that because my best friend is dead. My mentor was killed by a psychopath wearing his face. I told you I was The Flash and you didn’t believe me. I told you to get out of town and you stayed and then when I needed you, you weren’t there!”

“Gramps-”

A third speedster whips open the front door, and Barry grabs him by the collar before slamming him on the ground, “Wally? Cousin Wally?”

Barry’s powers were back if his instinct to protect Iris was any indication.

“I didn’t handle things well Barry and I’m sorry. But I love you and I need you to come home.”

He wants to tell Barry to think about this. That Iris is important but her safety is even more important and that he can’t save everyone. It was better if they were apart even if his heart was being ripped out of his chest because that’s just how lonely their lives were-

“Husband! I’m home.”

Felicity's timing is impeccable, her ponytail distracting him from his melancholy thoughts of loneliness. He couldn't fault Barry for wanting love.

Felicity shakes her hair out of her ponytail, kicking her shoes off and then folding her blazer carefully on the kitchen table. She’s halfway unzipped out of her blouse before she notices the newcomers in the living room.

“Oh. Hi, Iris.” Felicity smiles, “I wasn’t expecting you. Plus your friends.”

“Mrs. Queen, it’s an honor. Grandma speaks very highly of you in the future.” Bart shakes her hand, “We’ll be leaving.”

Barry kisses Felicity’s cheek and shakes his head, “Oh I forgot I said I’d help you move.”

Barry runs like he normally would, zipping around them, the three blurs running around her apartment until the walls are bare. One of them lifts him up, and dinner is made on their new dining table, with all of their things put away, a map and the keys on the table in front of them.

“So how was your day? I bought a house.”

“I almost took my clothes off in front of complete strangers.” Felicity shrugged digging into her pasta. “And no one threw money at me that was a plus.”

Oliver goes for his wallet and ends up with an eyeful of spaghetti.

Shoveling down a mouth of pasta, he pulled the table runner towards him, the centerpiece and their place settings on the floor. With a jump, he slid down the table to her end and pulled her into a kiss. She broke a breadstick over his head but he couldn’t make himself care.

“You are ridiculous, Husband.”

“Only because I love you, Wife.”

She pushed him back onto the table and if he wasn’t already turned on, he definitely would be now. Their phones go off at the same time, the TV in the living room flipping on to the breaking news alert.  The lights flashed in the house and the garage door opened-

“What the fuck did he do to my house?” Oliver groaned. Kissing her cheek as an apology, he sat the two of them up before gently removing her from his lap. Grabbing his coat out of the closet, he grabbed her coat and purse before heading to the garage where her car was parked next to his motorcycle.

Felicity rushed out the door, putting her shoes on one at a time before handing him his earbud, “Canary, talk to me.”

Oliver flipped the visor down, catching the keys and peeling out of the driveway.

A note was tucked underneath Felicity’s visor and she held it up to him, “Backseat.”

Glancing backwards in the rear-view mirror, his bow and extra suit were folded neatly in her backseat.

“I’ll send Barry a fruit basket.” Felicity laughed, pulling up her laptop, “Arrow on route. ETA three minutes.”

**

“You got married.”

Diggle either was having trouble understanding him or he was in shock. They were doing their monthly weapons inventory while Thea was there doing her regular inventory and it had come up that Oliver had been “distracted” for the past week. Dig had been out of town in Metropolis since the crisis and Oliver supposed the news had not come up. And he had repeated himself several times.

“Yes. After the Crisis, before we went to Central City.” Oliver kept his ring on a chain around his neck, and happily showed it to his friend, “We would have invited you but it was last minute and she wants to get married again. She’s been swamped since Ray left.”

Diggle drops the guns he was cleaning and crosses the room to hug him. “I am so happy for you, Oliver.”

His phone goes off, the tenth text message from Clark in the past hour. Reporters were nosy. Especially ones at the Daily Planet who moonlit as a superhero.

The call comes from a new number, “Hang up on me, Green Asshole and I will end you.”

“Who is this? You know I can trace this call with two clicks,” Oliver motioned for Diggle to make the two clicks, to which Diggle motioned for him do it himself.  Whispering a string of swear words, he moved to Felicity’s computer and did it in six clicks. He got the tracking software pinging her location somewhere in Metropolis.

“Lois Lane. Daily Planet. I’m not dumb enough to call you from my actual phone.”

While news in Metropolis was more focused on Superman, than Clark, it was hard to miss all the photos of the caped man kissing the hot shot reporter.

“My partner has been hounding you for weeks and I need to know that whatever he has on you, I am the better writer. Smallville, I don’t know why you insist on texting everyone. Getting an actual quote requires actual talking.”

_“Lois, leave the poor man alone.”_

“Not until he gives me an exclusive on whatever it the two of you are doing. He could have hung up by now so either he’s desperate to talk or we amuse him.”

Oliver tells Lois that he got married and hangs up the phone. If she’s a reporter worth anything she’ll figure out to whom. He calls Clark back and tells him he’ll be on the next flight to Kansas. Whatever Superman needed to tell him needed to be in person. He had become an expert at last minute trips, his spare bag stashed in the closet of the Arrow Cave. He said his goodbyes to Diggle and headed for his motorcycle, already dialing Roy'as number without looking.

“Roy?”

“It’s me. We switched phones on accident.” Thea’s voice sounded annoyed and if the groaning in the background was any indication they were still at the gym. “I may have broken him.”

He could picture Thea tilting her head and staring down at Roy because he favored the left and Malcom would have taught her to look for that. She was used to fighting with someone twice her size, and a trained assassin at that. Roy would be easy, especially if he was holding back.

“To be fair he said don’t hold back.” Thea added, “What can I do for my big brother?”

“I need you and Roy to keep an eye on the city for a few days.”

Oliver feels like he’d spent the whole morning on the phone and by the time he’s ten minutes late to being ten minutes early for lunch, Felicity’s assistant is chewing him out the entire elevator ride up to her office.

“You are very rude.” Oliver frowned, handing her a coffee anyway. How he got tricked into bringing her assistant coffee was beyond him.

“And you’re late. Ms. Smoak does not have time to wait on her stay-at-home husband.”

“I used to own this company.” Oliver snarked, happy the doors were opening. Stepping out quickly, he beat the assistant to her office door, where she was talking animatedly to the heads of IT. Apparently dropping research and amping up their technology endeavors actually saved them money and with Palmer out of the picture there really was no way for them to not be profitable. Ray liked to buy companies to own them. Not to make them profitable. Felicity spent night and day trimming the fat and let the company run itself.

“And that’s lunch. I’ll be back in an hour and you know my doors always open or whatever. And good brainstorming session!” Felicity shook hands with her department heads and motioned for him to come in. Kicking her heels off she put her feet up and made grabby hands for the sandwich in his hands.

Oliver sat down next to her on the sofa and took out his own salad before handing her sandwich: club with extra mayonnaise and mustard. Also he put a few more vegetables on it and gave her tea instead of the extremely large soda she requested.

“You know I love you, but this is borderline abuse.” Oliver commented, watching her inhale her french fries. She flicked one at him from across the desk and it landed perfectly in his mouth.

“Eating some uncomplex carbs and some delicious fries will not kill you.” Felicity countered, grabbing her tea and muttering, “Prochnost,” before knocking it back.

He steals another fry and goes back to his salad. She chats about her day and how she liked this person’s idea or how she thought about new network improvements as they happened. She stops between mouthfuls to ask how his day went and it was a boring amount of crime reports and training.

“Uh, training. I miss the salmon ladder.” Felicity murmured, reaching over to touch his hand. He tries to not flinch when he touches her but it is a habit he has yet to break. Instead he focuses on something he can change- his words. He rambles about everything breakfast with Dig, about how much he wishes he would have shut her office door before coming to lunch.

Her cheeks turn pink at the innuendo and he wants to kiss her breath away instead of telling her potentially horrible news, “I need to go to Metropolis for awhile. Clark needs help with something.”

He waits for the tears or the anger or the injustice of not being offered to go with but Felicity has already been re-engrossed in work.

“Just make sure you give them our airline miles and like don’t die and stuff.” Felicity pulled his lapels and kissed the side of his mouth. “Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll really miss you when I’m gone.”

Oliver pictures Felicity, wrapped up in a bright pink sheet telling him to come to bed, saying those exact words. Then she waddles over to the bed and then trips, with a frustrated giggle, the sheet lowering to reveal just the hint of thigh-

“Amelia. Push back her 1:00, and only open this door if the building is on fire.” Oliver closes the door and clicks the buttons for the digital shades.

“Oliver?”

“My flights not for a few hours.” He confesses, kicking of his shoes and removing his jacket. Maybe he could be Mr. Queen for a little while longer.

**

“You realize that I can’t even lift the bar, let alone help you if you’re struggling.”

Oliver looked up at Felicity over the weights he was carrying and smiled. He knew that she could bench the bar. He also knew how good she looked in her new pink sports bra. But that was beside the point, she was the one who had to sit through the HR meeting about employee health. Reopening the company gym gave him something to do, even if he had to deal with all of the amazingly awkward questions from everyone.

“You help in other ways.” Oliver responded, moving to unlock the door.  He doubted the gym would be crowded but he was proved wrong by the line of women lining the hallway.

“Someone said you were doing a meditation and yoga class at 7am.”

One of the first women in the door told him, pointing towards the room in the back. She said something to the woman behind her and they both headed that way, followed by another ten women.

Turning to his wife, she held up the flyer and then slinked away towards the elliptical. Squinting his eyes at her, he went to the group fitness room that used to be a conference room. Why anyone would come into work early to meditate-

“If I didn’t love you, I would really love you for this.” Felicity smiled leaning up to be kissed. He knew she meant well. And he knew he had to get out of the house but somehow he thought his return to Queen would be- more involved in Business and not to be eye candy for her female employees.

Leaning down to oblige, he pecked her lips before moving to address his "class", “Mediation is about self-reflection and inner peace-”

After fifteen minutes the group started getting antsy, so he moved on to stretches before telling them all to run two miles. Felicity stayed behind, doing her best to do a head stand against the wall. “Sara told me balance of the body leads to balance of the mind.”

Flipping her up onto her head, he held onto her hips and tried not to laugh as she punched the air, her legs flying everywhere. Taking a step back, he smirked as she kept her balance by herself once she held still. Stretching one leg down, she gracefully righted herself back up and tossed him a towel, “Executive bathroom before work?”

“You didn’t need help.” He accused.

“You’ll never know.” She thanked the last of the stragglers for coming and motioned for the elevator. He would like nothing more than to join her but he had yet another conference call with Bruce. This would be the last one before their honeymoon, where he planned to spend 24 hours straight in bed on a beach with no cell service.

He had even pre-packed their bags and after five pm they were free.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Oliver kissed her cheek and headed for the parking garage. Being married to the CEO had its perks, like his own parking space and security clearance. Taking the executive elevator down to the garage was private and kept him away from anyone who might be questioning his motives for being there. Catching a hint of something outside of the window, he frowned seeing the flash of red cape.

“Vacation. I am going.”

Clark motioned like he couldn’t hear him through the glass before cracking a smile. Oliver didn’t have to hear through walls to hear his super friend cackling. Meeting Clark in the parking garage, he looked oddly out of place in jeans and a t-shirt. He had specifically told them that this meeting should be done without them, but the two of them liked to be involved with everything.

“I am from Kansas. I own a farm.”

Clark looked down at his dirty boots and shrugged. He looked out of place in Starling and even without his normal suit, Oliver figured the so-called Man of Steel would always look out of place without the cape.

“You spend two minutes a day on a farm that your parents own. That you fly to. And speed around. Then you go home to your hot wife and then to your real job while you duck out and fly around the world. Definitely from Kansas.” Oliver mused.

Clark, glances up to the Queen Inc sign and the office where the reigning Queen was sitting, “You don’t have a job and _your_ hot wife runs point on pretty much everything. You call my wife and the nice, calm Lois that I know and love becomes the crazy Lois who drives me nuts. ”

Oliver really didn’t care if Lois drove him nuts. Sleeping on their couch for three days was bad enough for him to need his revenge. The two of them go across the street for coffee and sit there for fifteen minutes until Barry finally shows up.

“I have two speedsters I need to be babysitting. Penciling you two in-”

Oliver glares at Barry and he clams up. “We are here to talk to you about the- Justice League.” Oliver didn’t particularly like the name but apparently when Cisco had it in his mind to name something- it stuck. He had brought plenty of files to persuade Barry, location specs, security measures. Phase One would be setting the framework and then at Phase Three he could finally tell Felicity what was going on and stop travelling around so much. He'd been on a spaceship last week and then Coast City talking to a merman who lived in the ocean. Barry could recruit ten times faster.

The binder in his briefcase was out in front of Barry, flipping through the binder until the last page-

Barry's confused look is unsettling. Clark closes the binder in front of Barry, putting his hand on the cover. “Antarctica is ten degrees colder than it has been in the past ten years. Global warming should be melting the ice caps, not making new ice growth. The League believes that someone is down there making it colder.”

Clark pulls a picture out of his pocket, “The cameras don’t really work down there but-”

Inside one of the snow storms was a face.

Oliver grabs Barry’s arm before he did something stupid, “Your powers won’t work down there. The cold. You’ll just freeze to death down there with her.”

“What if it was Felicity?”

Oliver already died once. He didn’t want Barry to make that sacrifice, “I would have a plan.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Oliver.”

Oliver takes the swearing and speeding away as a yes.


	2. Chapter 2

Glancing at the city outside of the elevator, Felicity did her best to not fiddle with her engagement ring while she should be paying attention to her surroundings. She had kidnapping “training” from former Navy SEALs, recovery specialists and some of Oliver’s “associates” in the Russian mob. She also knows that _when_ she gets her cellphone back she can roughly estimate how many clicks she was from the airport.

It was rare that she was summoned anywhere- all concerning parties knew to give her space. Public knowledge of her relationship with Oliver was enough for most to leave her alone, but those who knew of her nightly habits knew that she could hurt anyone worse than the Arrow-and she did things on her own terms. When the emails started showing up on her private server Oliver was in Gotham for his secret business affairs with Bruce Wayne and when the strike team came for her- she went.

Reflecting on her dire straits was not helping anything. Her captor frisked her, took her phone and then stuck her on a plane. They were in the air for three hours and when they landed she was escorted to an office building, her silent captor disappearing into the shadows.

When she got into the elevator, the attendant promptly hit a sequence of buttons, leaving her in the elevator alone.

Wherever she was going, the attendant was afraid. Not a good sign. The elevator promptly stopped and she cautiously peeked her head out. She was in a tiny hallway with another elevator at the end. Stepping onto the pristine white tile, the floor lit up underneath her, the telltale sign of a scanner warming up.

Jumping back into the elevator she kicked off her shoes, aiming for the obviously unsecured power supply in the corner.  Mentally patting herself on the back for hitting it on the first try, the laser turned off, the white tiles turning to a dark black. Getting scanned was never a good sign, her brain kicking into overdrive for solutions. Not thinking of any she silently apologized to Oliver and used to her engagement ring to cut up the floor panel, the glass popping up easily, when faced with a large diamond.

Nothing but cement. Lots of cement. Clicking the floor back into place, an alarm echoed from the elevator, her only safety net slamming shut, the elevator headed back to the lobby. Her kidnappers definitely were doing a shitty job. Leaving her alone was always a bad idea.

Deciding that no one would be killing her today she pulled out the arrow that was strapped to her thigh and prepared for the impending fight.

The elevator door opened, Oliver casually leaning against the back of the elevator, arms spread against the rail, “I am so turned on right now.”

She did not blush- much. One of the weirder things in the relationship status change was how he was not shy to tell anyone his feelings for her. All the time. But she was too mad at him to be swooning at his feet. Kidnapping. Lying. Secrets. Just because he looked good in the shower did not mean he would be getting off easy.

“We’re not having sex ever again so that’s just gonna be a problem for you.” She snarked, smacking him in the arm. He kept smiling his stupid smile and hit a few buttons on the elevator and they began their descent down.

“Never?” Oliver whispered, leaning in close to her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

“Never.” Standing her ground she breezed past the bored looking woman in the waiting room. Oliver asked her to slow down but she didn’t want to hear it. Raising her left hand, she briefly wondered if she should turn her ring to the inside but she decided to throw her weight into slap instead.

The slap echoed in the meeting room, Bruce Wayne flinching.

“I don’t care who you are. If you send armed guards to “get” me again, I’ll have the FTC, SEC and FBI so far up your ass you can’t sit down. Two clicks. Remember that Bruce.” Aggression successfully out, she let her anger fuel her until she could calmly back away from Mr. Wayne.

“Finally something interesting happens. I’m thinking- Enraged Woman attacks Billionaire Bruce Wayne. That should get me a few hundred thousand retweets. Especially if I spin it into a Queen vs Wayne angle especially with the merger. Lois Lane. Daily Planet. Fellow Kidnapping Victim.”

Felicity shook the offered hand and stared daggers at Bruce. For months she’d asked her husband about the League. For months he’d whisk off to Gotham or Metropolis at the drop of a hat. And now she was finally ‘invited’ to the boys club and they were sorely mistaken if they thought she was just going to roll over and take it.

“Welcome to the Justice League.” Oliver apologized rather lamely.  “Now can we start the meeting or are the two of you interested in destroying more of Bruce’s building?”

Felicity had a feeling she and Lois would be fast friends. Lois, having clawed two superheroes and tazed another, was vigorously recording everything. To sue or report, Felicity wasn’t quite sure. It’s not a meeting, per se. There are lawyers and more lawyers and a guy who made his own chair out of some weird green light that she’s sure Cisco would die for.

“This was all Clark’s idea, Lois, so you can talk to him about the bureaucracy of it all.” Oliver informed the brunette who definitely did not want to sign the paperwork.

Felicity signed the documents and the green light guy held out his arm, “My name’s Hal. Bruce and Clark wanted everyone to be sure-”

Barry shows up late, as per usual and interrupts the potentially informative rendezvous. He speeds her around the offices, the rooms and then plants her back to where Hal was finishing his speech.

“-I hate him.” Hal finishes.

“He gets that a lot.” Felicity reassures him.

Meetings. Scans. Briefings. Aliens. Metahumans. Invisible Jet.

The past three hours were a blur, but safely tucked into the town car on the way back to the hotel she could finally relax. “You are a horrible husband.”

Oliver, not to be dismayed by the insult, let his hand creep up her skirt, leaning his forehead against her neck. “Don’t say that Felicity.” His voice always got softer when was trying to get his way.

“It’s true. That guy had fins. You know how I feel about mermaids.”

His hands inched their way higher, Oliver’s mumblings about the people in the League in her ear. He was proud of her, he knew that but being lied to about his business with Bruce Wayne was not sitting well with her. Even if it involved aliens.

“If you think you’re getting lucky in Bruce Wayne’s towncar-”

Accommodating his wandering hands, she probably would have let him unzip her skirt if not for the woman abruptly throwing herself into the car. The car rocked back and forth up front and the partition lowered, the disappointed sigh coming from Oliver’s lips did not go unnoticed, a woman looking at the two of them in surprise.

“Well this is awkward. Did I really hijack the wrong car?”

The chauffer’s hat was probably the only piece of clothing the woman was wearing, her black trench coat sitting next to her on the passenger seat. Covering Oliver’s eyes with her hand, she could feel him frowning from underneath her palm.

“Yes.”

The woman shrugs the trench coat back on, offering her hand. “My apologies, Mrs. Queen.”

“No one calls me that.” She responds quickly, too quickly. “Felicity.”

“Selina. You can uncover his eyes now.”

Felicity decided to keep her hand where it was, “Nope.”

Raising the partition back up, she waited for Selina to exit the car, the woman apologizing to the driver waiting on the curb. They resumed their journey to the hotel and she again gave her apologies to the driver.

“It’s quite alright Madam. It’s not the first time Ms. Kyle has accosted me of my duties.”

Her suitcase magically appears out of the trunk, her bags added to Oliver’s making him look ridiculously overloaded. She tipped the driver, and the bellboy for not needing his services, and when she could finally sit down she did anything to seem busy.

“Oliver, the last time you packed for me it was all underwear and you forgot my phone charger-”

“You say ‘forgot’ I say ‘intentionally left behind’. It was our honeymoon.”

Felicity had learned that checking her phone after coming home was a mistake. If they check the news reports in Starling, the two of them will get twitchy. If she were to check the reports in Gotham, then maybe one more Arrow sighting in Gotham will lead to some conclusions she wasn’t sure they were ready for. She also ran a company in her spare time and that was its own can of worms.

Oliver orders them room service and they talk about normal, everyday things, like aliens and superheroes.

The rest of the night is thankfully uneventful.

**

“No. No. NO.”

If Oliver told her to calm down one more time she was going to kill someone. And it would probably be Ray but he apparently had not disappeared but somehow shrunk himself down and was living in a fully functioning dollhouse. In the Justice League building they called “Watchtower”. Watchtower was her little makeshift prison and with a few major repairs she would have it more secure than the Pentagon. Like the Pentagon was secure- And she was talking to herself again.

“Even tiny you should have seen how poorly this network was setup!” Felicity growled, going from the cable gun herself. “Actually you could go in and repair circuits if we gave you a little soldering gun.”

Tiny Ray typed on his little keyboard and the message projected onto her monitor _Yes I can but the solder is too big to carry around._

“You know it took me three weeks to outfit my office at Queen Consolidated. Then another four at Palmer and when we moved the Arrow Cave I had to go to night school to figure out how to do it myself because hiring someone was out of the question and now you have some two bit hack doing the encryption on possibly the most secure site on the planet-”

Seeing the wince on Oliver’s face meant the two bit hack was standing right behind her.

“Barbara Gordon. They warned me you’d be stopping in.”

The woman was too pretty to be a crimefighter. She had spent the past few months rigorously studying crime patterns in Gotham, Metropolis, Central City and Bludhaven. Barbara’s resume spoke for itself. Stupidly shaking her outstretched hand a few beats too late, she briefly wondered if she should apologize. She voted no.

“In my defense, I told them you should have been brought in day one. Cisco’s been helping but Bruce is filling an emotional gap by training him to fight. Clark decided to give you two weeks while we prep Ronnie.”

Felicity suddenly feels like all of her files back at the Arrow cave wouldn’t properly prepare her for this. Politics of superheroes. Maybe she should be taking notes.

“Why two weeks?”

“We’re going after Caitlin.” Oliver says before taking a step back to avoid her slap.

Felicity tries her breathing exercises. She tries to remember her breathing exercises, at least. She should be less surprised when her friends come back from the dead. But Caitlin was the closest thing she had to a female best friend and when she died it was hard. Very hard. Then Cisco almost died and-

“Killer Frost is Caitlin. It was one of Barry’s terms- that we save her. She’s sleeping/frozen/her cells can’t move somewhere in Antarctica. In two weeks it’s summer down there and we can send a team.”

Sounded like a plan. Hell no.

Dropping her tablet in a hopefully dramatic way, she stormed out of the main server room and up to where Clark was trying to calm Lois down about something.

“I don’t get angry very often, Mr. Superman. But I am ANGRY. My best friend, whom I thought was dead, is actually not dead, and someone I now know has laser vision. Two someones! You’re prepping the dumbest mission ever. We need a sauna, you and your super cousin to fly down there and GET MY FRIEND BACK.”

It took two days for them to bring her back. Felicity didn’t know much about thermodynamics, but apparently when properly motivated, the super team could dig through the earth’s crust in the subbasement, and built Caitlin a proper little- room. It was not a cage. Cages did not have fireproof framed art or fake windows. Rooms had wallpaper and a bed. There was no lock but there was a safety door- and unlocked safety door! Felicity really wished she could stop talking to herself.

Watching Barry argue with Bruce-Freaking-Wayne about making a holding cell was probably the most intense she’d ever seen him. Bruce, for the most part was being logical. It made sense, they needed to protect Caitlin at all costs.

Barry drew the line at the heat-proof bars. So did she, and if Bruce didn’t want to get slapped again- she needed to stop hanging out with Laurel because she is not one of those girls who slaps people, despite her behavior in the past few days.

“Somehow I pictured the Justice League to be a little more- functional.” Lois commented dryly, peering into the gaping hole in the floor. “Bruce can be intense. But he’s just a big softy.”

Felicity somehow doubted that.

The familiar swoosh of air ran past the two of them and into the pit, Clark and Kara floating to the top like an elevator. “This is not a permanent solution, Mrs. Queen.”

“It’s Felicity,” Felicity really needed to work on correcting people about her name. Or at least sound less defensive when she did. Without breaking eye contact at the most powerful person on the planet, she hit the microphone button on the wall. “Caitlin? How’s the weather down there?”

“Felicity, is- is Barry there?”

Barry, nudges her away Felicity pretends not to be insulted by her best friends, but she supposed if Oliver turned into a frozen ice creature that sucked the heat of living beings the situation would be different. If the others knew what the full extent of Barry’s powers were- they’d know that he’d been trying for months to change the past and save her.

It sucked when your archnemesis could do the same thing.

She and Lois are zipped out of the room, the door to the boiler room whipped shut in front of them.

“Well that was interesting. Lunch? Hal’s cooking.”

_“Cait, don’t cry. You’ll freeze your tear ducts. We’re gonna figure this out, Cisco and Ray are working on a Heat Suit, and we will help you learn to control your powers. I love you.”_

Felicity knows, more than ever, that just because they have super powers or flashy technology, or are two inches tall doesn’t mean they’re perfect. She tried not to think about Iris, or the Justice League or knowing another millionaire, or her company or love. Not everyone was Oliver.

Not everyone was her- she would find a way to make it work.

Oliver walks up behind her, she can tell because of his warmth and his hands have calluses from firing too many arrows. He smells like leather and the ocean and his arm wraps around her middle, ushering the two of them into the alcove.

He leans his forehead against hers and just breathes.

“I can’t blame him. Because if it was you-” Felicity’s not sure if she said it or he said but it was true either way. Because as much as he’d like to think that he is the problem in their relationship, everyone was more afraid of her than they were of him. He was a trophy husband to one of the most powerful people in America. She could destroy someone on the other side of the country without a bow and arrow. She and an image and PR people and their lives would always be messy.

“I have everything to think about. Like Queen Industries and the Arrow Cave and Star City and how one of my only friends is alive again and how I was at an engagement party just last month for Iris and Barry. He loves her.”

“And he loves Iris. Love isn’t a one and only for most people.”

They were not most people. She was learning to read between the lines with Oliver and after three years she was glad for it. Caitlin and Barry had always been close- just as close as she and Oliver. Her heart hurt. Her head hurt.

“Felicity, you’re doing that thing where you talk out loud again.” Oliver kissed the side of her face and went back to whatever it is he did there. In fact she had not seen him do any actual work besides eat lunch with her and the lady that can fly. Or the lady with the invisible jet.

Maybe there was a recurring theme with her and him hanging out with ladies. Maybe she should apologize to Bruce and Clark about snapping at them.  Then hang out with the really ripped, smart, successful men-

But she was getting off topic in her head again.  There was work to be done and her conflicting thoughts would need to wait for when she could cry or scream or laugh with Oliver at home. In Star City. Where they belonged. Felicity looked to where her own little tiny ex-boyfriend was milling around his dollhouse.

“I can hear your judgments from here, Mighty Mouse. Let’s get this suit fixed by the time Barry lets me have a turn.”

**

As much as she’d like to say she was crucial to the operation of the Justice League, she really wasn’t. Barbara Gordon was not bad. She was whip smart and once shown the Smoak Path it was obvious that she could have a handle on things. Which lead her to harass Oliver non-stop until they could go home.

“You have to aim your ice beam differently. It’s not a gun or an arrow. It’s slow to charge up and even slower for you to focus. You need to think about your opponent’s next move and be there first. If you can’t hit them-”

Caitlin motioned towards the ground, “-Make them slip?”

To demonstrate, Caitlin made a small, very peculiar-sized patch of ice on the ground. Barry, jolting into the room slipped spectacularly into the wall.

“The circumference of the puddle is the optimal size for falling especially at high speeds.”

Most superheroes did not care about the size of their ice patches that they made with their magical powers. While Oliver was getting frustrated at her perceived slowness, Caitlin was concentrating on the science. Which was just who she was even if this amazingly scary intense thing happened to her. Her hair was still white and she was much too pale for Felicity’s liking, but her friend was okay. They’d done their best job with the suit and she was working on her powers. That was all they could ask for.

“And I’m not slow. Knowing the proper trajectory of the ice is easy to understand but I need to figure out art- Using my mind instead of my hands. This is fascinating. And scary and you’re very intense!” To demonstrate, Caitlin swirled the ice in front of her, squishing her hands together if she were kneading bread dough.

The result was a perfectly formed arrow, completely made out of ice, “There are some polymers I could work with that would really make this baby fly. You know the feather part makes the arrow go further.”

Taking criticism was never his strong suit, so Oliver whipped his bow up, the arrow arching perfectly in the air and landing straight for Caitlin’s palm. The arrow, which Felicity knows is diamond-tipped and carbon steel hits Caitlin’s palm, stopping horizontally in the air.

Caitlin turns her palm to show a divet of ice in both hands.

“If the arrow hits in the center of her hand she build the perfect stop for it.” Barry pointed out, “I kinda told her you like shooting arrows at people.”

“Well there is a time for shooting friends and a time for fancy cocktail parties.” Felicity motions to her smoking (pun intended) dress and the heels she borrowed from Lois. One of the many things that were not packed for her by her loving husband. Lois however, came for a party.

And she had finally talked Bruce into a meeting with Mr. Fox. Which meant her head of security would need to leave Watchtower to escort his wife to the party. Then they could finally go home and hope that Roy and Thea didn’t trash her brand new Arrow cave.

Handing to the tux to Oliver, he started stripping right there, in front of god and everyone. Caitlin gave a wink before sliding on an ice patch out of the room. Mumbling something about running faster on ice and eating some spicy food. Oliver looked up, half naked and well, hot, and Felicity was sure they were going to hell.

“What? Is my shirt misbuttoned?”

Felicity ran her hands over his shirt and tried to come off as cool and casual. As these things tended to go, she was neither cool nor casual. Unbuttoning his shirt, she giggled when he pressed her against the wall, “I thought we were never having sex again.”

“We both know I was lying.” Felicity ran her fingertips over his abs, lingering on his hips. He was too fit for his own good and honestly she would never get used to having her super fly- did people still say ‘fly’? husband wanting her all the time.

He unzipped her skirt and as much as he liked the heels on she was too far up the wall to keep them on.  And they technically weren’t hers but that was beside the point. They stood up, perfectly in place between Oliver’s bare feet, surrounded by her very expensive underwear.

“Don’t ruin my makeup.” She warned, holding her finger up to his lips. He obviously didn’t like that answer but they were still going to the charity event. She was giving her hard-earned bonus to the Gotham Children’s Fund. There was a giant check and everything!

“You want to have sex but you don’t want me to kiss you.” Oliver questioned tossing her up a few more inches so he could get his boxers off while she was in the air. How he learned two-person gymnastics between dying and being stuck on an island was beyond her. But she dutifully allowed herself to get tossed in the air, or on the ground or if the situation deemed necessarily, against a wall.

“Who says we’re having sex?” Felicity whispered trying to stop herself from giggling. Because honestly, it was hilarious that a man who basically took off his shirt for a living wanted to be with her- like all the time.

“You weren’t wearing pantyhose. You have a tell, Smoak.” He rearranged his grip on her, sliding inside her while simultaneously slamming her against the wall. He did not pack her any pantyhose and that smartass knew it.

“It’s Mrs. Queen tonight.”

Felicity really hoped that none of them had some sort of super hearing. Some of the things she was yelling would definitely be embarrassing.

**

“I thought you didn’t dance.” Selina had dragged Felicity to ‘powder their noses’ which was a thinly veiled attempt for the cat burglar to liberate some jewels- leaving him alone with Bruce. The two of them did not particularly like being around each other- Bruce was no idiot. He knew Ras’ left a permanent mark on both of them. But Bruce was already broken before he became Batman and that was troubling. A group of highly skilled, dangerous people coming together was only going to cause problems.

“I dance with my wife to make her happy. Just like you dance with your girlfriend to make sure she’s not stealing jewelry from your biggest donors.”

“Selina does as she pleases. I’ve learned that I can’t control that. Just do some gentle nudging in the right direction.”

Bruce’s gaze goes to the plaque on the wall, dedicating the great room to Selina Kyle. Something told Oliver that she wouldn’t be stealing anything at this particular function.

Felicity comes back and even though he’d already unzipped that particular skirt, so to speak, he was still in awe of her every time he saw her.

“You’re doing a lot of dancing.” Felicity noted, as he pulled her in close and maneuvered them towards the dance floor.

“Best way to survey the whole room for threats.”

She laughs as they moved together. He is not a bad dancer, he just prefers not to do it. Love is about sacrifice and he will sacrifice anything for her. Even dancing. And wearing pink bowties in public. Just like she sacrificed her underwear that he may or may not have kicked underneath the floor mats in the training room.

 He knows that he should tell her. He knows that he’d spent the whole week trying to avoid this particular conversation but-

“-If you think I’m leaving you here alone, you’re mistaken, Mr. Queen.”

Felicity’s nose wrinkled up at him.

She wants to go home. He knows this. She wants to go back to her company and their brownstone and not always be Wife to the Arrow, but maybe wife to her actual husband. Gotham is not their city. Neither is Metropolis, which is where they are going next.

Then Coast City and Bludhaven and finally when they get back to Central City they will head home. They needed Barbara running point and Felicity could set up their backup servers faster and he could talk Dick into maybe not being such a- dick when it came to league business.

“See where I talk out loud on accident you talk on the inside on accident.” She grabs his chin, and his heart maybe melts a little.

“There are things that we should do for the League- certain talents the two of us have-” Oliver leaves out the part where she is his wife and he would miss her.

“Oh, I just wanted to hear you say it, Kara spilled the beans three days ago. Those Kents hate lying.”

Felicity wraps her arm around his neck and he takes advantage of their closeness. He’s not sure that in a world with superheroes and villains they would get many quiet days after this.

 **

**Epilogue**

 

Connor shows up on their doorstep and doesn’t say a word for three days. Felicity’s not sure how he even found their house, but there was no doubt in her mind that Connor Hawke was Oliver’s son.

They had just gotten back into town from Gotham and everything was crazy and then there was a ten year old boy who’d run away from foster care and had a picture of his mother that made Oliver feel things she didn’t think he could deal with. He picked up the garbage bag full of things Connor brought with him and moved him into a bedroom that was close enough for him to keep an eye on the boy but far enough to make him not feel smothered.

The house was big enough, and she had some vacation days left, so she went to Target and bought things like Ninja Turtles Bubble bath and clothes for a scrawny little boy and that was the end of the non-existent conversation. He would be staying with them and that was that.

Questions like “Do you like Macaroni and Cheese?” went unanswered, but he ate whatever was put in front of him. They take him to the doctor and the bruise covering half of his ribs was enough to make Oliver lose it. Whatever he’d held in for the past few days came out in truly Oliver fashion.

“I don’t know how to be a father, Felicity.” Oliver’s hand was outstretched towards the exam room, grasping for something that wasn’t there. “They could have killed him. He’s my _son_.”

Oliver ten years ago could not have handled this. Oliver five years ago definitely could not handle this. She wasn’t sure Oliver now could handle this.

“He’s your son, and that means he’s my son too.” Felicity snapped, “So you can cut out this pity party and try to get to know him. We’re not letting anyone hurt him again.”

She goes back into the exam room, where Connor is sucking on a lollipop, the doctor satisfied with the blood drawn. Oliver ducks back inside after him, and offers Connor a hand with his jacket. “You’re going to stay with us and Felicity. We’ll get you in a school and um, whatever you’d like to do in your free time. When I was a kid I liked soccer. Do you like soccer?”

“Baseball.”

That’s the only word he says for the next few days but Felicity sees that as improvement.

She finds out lots of things like he does not like popcorn and lives in his baseball jersey “his Dad” bought him. They paint his room green and he runs outside with Sara and Roy takes him to the movies with Thea. He is happy as a little boy can be when his mother abandons him and maybe she bawls uncontrollably on his first day back at school when he calls her “Mommy”.

She will call that day the third happiest of her life. The first is when she married Oliver. The second is when she reached an understanding with her mother. The fourth will probably be when she gets up the courage to tell Oliver she’s pregnant.


End file.
